Braving the bay

Local swimmers to face cold, sharks in Bridge to Bridge 10K

Updated 1:41 pm, Sunday, May 5, 2013

Photo: Waterworldswim.com Media

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Swimmers prepare to start the 2102 Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim. The 6.2-mile swim in the San Francisco Bay is limited to 30 participants willing to brave strong currents, cold water, marine life and more as they swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge. In 2013 two San Antonio women, Mary Kay Cooper and Sheryl Crump plan to participate.

Swimmers prepare to start the 2102 Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim. The 6.2-mile swim in the San Francisco Bay is limited to 30 participants willing to brave strong currents, cold water, marine life and more as they

Sheryl Crump is one of 33 participants registered for the seventh annual Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim in San Francisco on May 11. She says the swim is a 40th-birthday present to herself.

Sheryl Crump is one of 33 participants registered for the seventh annual Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim in San Francisco on May 11. She says the swim is a 40th-birthday present to herself.

Photo: Photos By Cynthia Esparza / For The Express-News

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Mary Kay Cooper will join Crump on the 6.2-mile swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge. The two met in 2009 while training for a triathlon with the Team In Training fundraising program.

Mary Kay Cooper will join Crump on the 6.2-mile swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge. The two met in 2009 while training for a triathlon with the Team In Training fundraising program.

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Crump, who began swimming competitively at age 5, trains at the Bill Walker Pool at the Blossom Athletic Center. Her regimen includes swimming four times a week and running twice a week. She and Cooper have been training since January.

Crump, who began swimming competitively at age 5, trains at the Bill Walker Pool at the Blossom Athletic Center. Her regimen includes swimming four times a week and running twice a week. She and Cooper have

Cooper, who swam competitively in high school, spends a day training in the Comal River. Her regimen includes swimming three days a week — two in open water, such as the Comal River, and one in the UTSA pool.

Cooper, who swam competitively in high school, spends a day training in the Comal River. Her regimen includes swimming three days a week — two in open water, such as the Comal River, and one in the UTSA pool.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

Braving the bay

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As if swimming 6.2 miles weren't enough of a challenge, Sheryl Crump and Mary Kay Cooper want to throw in frigid, choppy waters and the possibility of sharks to make it interesting.

They'll get that and more when they jump into the San Francisco Bay and swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge on May 11 during the Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim.

“My husband bought a camera with a bigger zoom because he's decided that when the shark is eating me during the event, he can get a picture without being too close to the action,” Cooper jokes.

The San Antonio swimmers are two of 33 participants registered for the seventh annual race. It's just one of the open-water swims around the world that Crump and Cooper have on their bucket list — or as they call it, their chum bucket list.

“This is just a different way to experience the water,” says Crump, a saleswoman at MegaPath Communications. “The pool can get really boring. But open water is always exciting, and every swim is different.”

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The Bridge to Bridge event is Crump's 40th birthday present to herself. Cooper was nice — and crazy — enough to agree to squeeze into a wetsuit to brave the 55-degree water with her, she says.

“I like to do challenging things that nobody else is really doing,” says Cooper, 42, senior director for alumni relations at Trinity University. “It's just more interesting to me.”

Last summer, the women completed a 1.2-mile swim from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shore. That event, plus a clinic to prepare them for it, familiarized them with strong currents, choppy water and cold temperatures, and it qualified them for the Bridge to Bridge 10K Swim.

Crump says the 6.2-mile swim likely will take them less than two hours. They've been training since January, incorporating weekday swims in indoor pools with longer, open-water swims in Boerne City Lake and the Comal River on the weekend.

That's as close as they can get to the San Francisco Bay around here, although dodging tubers isn't exactly the same as dodging marine animals.

“Deep down, yeah, I'm afraid of sharks, but I think ... that's maybe even what drove me to do this, to kind of overcome that fear,” Crump says. “I know what I'm getting into. But it's so worth it. It's just the best feeling, once you finish something like this.”

Contrary to popular belief, bay sharks aren't man-eaters, says Water World Swim, which holds the Bridge to Bridge event.

Crump began swimming competitively at age 5 and competed at Southern Methodist University. She met Cooper, who swam competitively in high school, in 2009 when they began training for a triathlon with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training fundraising program.

One reason she loves swimming, Cooper says, is “the water is probably the place that we're the most graceful. Even when you're a teenager and you're all awkward and uncoordinated, you could still manage to get in the water and look beautiful.”

“It's not as hard for us as it is boring,” Cooper says. “When you're running a marathon, you can potentially talk to the guy running next to you. Swimming, not so much. It's just you and your brain when you're in the water.”

Kayaks and other support crafts will accompany the swimmers during the Bridge to Bridge event to make sure they stay on course, provide water and food and offer rescue, if necessary.

This will be the longest swim Crump and Cooper have attempted. They're focused on finishing, not winning, the race. Last year's winner completed the event in 90 minutes and 31 seconds.

“We're both very competitive people,” Crump says. “I'm sure after this we will want to improve our times.”